Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Discussion Topic

• What is a Brand Identity Kit?
• Logo Example 

Quick Tips

• https://coolors.co/

Sponsors

• ABMP 
• The Original Jojoba Company 
• Jane  enter MBB1MO at signup for a 1-month grace period on your new Jane account.

Transcript: 

Sponsor message:

This episode is sponsored by ABMP. We so appreciate them. One of the many, many... Oh, I already messed up. Good morning. All right. One of the many, many benefits of ABMP membership is Let's talk about Massage and Body Work Magazine. This is an award-winning magazine included imprint for ABMP members, and it's available for free for everyone. Everyone. You can go to massageandbodyworkdigital.com and check out just every issue of Massage and Body Work. And it's so good. We write the Blueprint for Success column in the Best Practices section. There are a bunch of regular columns, fantastic features. It is a professional journal that includes techniques, in-depth features, video tie-ins to cover the issues that matter to us, professional body workers. It is phenomenal. Again, you can go to massageandbodyworkdigital.com. Thanks ABMP.

Allissa Haines:

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast where we help you attract more clients, make more money and improve your quality of life. I am Allissa Haines.

Michael Reynolds:

I'm Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines:

And we are delighted to be your host today. It's a brisk winter morning at the time that we're recording here. We are also live on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter. So if you're ever bored on a Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM Eastern, you can join us in any of those places and make fun of our live flubs and stumbling. How's it going, Michael?

Michael Reynolds:

It's a morning. I almost didn't make it today. So we got a zoo here at our house. We got some sick kiddos, some dog sitting happening, so I can't guarantee that I will make it through the episode, but I will do my best.

Allissa Haines:

And it was great because just as he hit go live, I heard a kid in the background be like, wah. So that was awesome. I'm hoping the dog makes an appearance.

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, possibly. It's very, very possible.

Allissa Haines:

So let's talk about what we're reading, and Michael left that spot blank. So I'll tell you what I'm reading. More fiction. Somehow I landed on this genre of fiction that's all taking place in England and in various parts of the UK.

So I am currently reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, which is a delightful piece of fiction about this senior citizen named Harold Fry, a recent retiree, and he lives in a small English village with his wife. It's great because the actual description of the book says, "He lives in a small English village with his wife Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does." So it's really neat. He gets a letter from a person he used to work with who is at the end of her life on the other side of England, and he decides he's going to walk to see her. And he's currently walking across England. I've not finished the book, but as it turns out, it's one of I think three books called the Harold Fry Series and I will absolutely be reading the other two because it is just a delightful and funny and sweet piece of fiction. And y'all know how I need that kind of escape nowadays.

Michael Reynolds:

Indeed. Sounds lovely.

Allissa Haines:

It is lovely. Michael, who's our next sponsor?

Michael Reynolds:

Jojoba.

Allissa Haines:

Let's talk about Jojoba.

Michael Reynolds:

Well, since I did the yell, so I just had to throw it in there.

Allissa Haines:

I'm doing all the intros and stuff this episode, but I'm going to pull you in at the end of this ad to talk about jojoba so brace yourself. The Jojoba Company is the only company in the world that carries 100% pure, first press quality jojoba. We are delighted to be partnering with them. Let me tell you why I love jojoba. It doesn't go rancid. It doesn't contain triglycerides like other products do, so it's not going to go bad. So if you use your fancy, expensive essential oils in it... Right now, I am hooked on holy basil essential oil. It's just a lovely scent. I've got a whole eight ounce bottle of jojoba with holy basil. And I know even if for some reason I don't use it for a couple of months, I'm going to go back to it and the oil's not going to be rancid and it won't have wrecked my essential oil, which is super-duper pricey.

Anyhow, it's also non-comedogenic. It doesn't clog pores, which is really, really nice if you have clients who are prone to acne. I have multiple bottles in my home. I actually just realized I don't have a little bottle out here in my backyard office, and that is problematic. I got to get some. And I got some on my nightstand, I got some at the kids' bathroom sink and I have some in the hall closet, so I have it in many places. Michael, how do you use your jojoba?

Michael Reynolds:

I'm glad you asked. First of all, that doesn't go rancid thing is true. I have a bottle that is years old. I don't know how many years. It's probably four or five years old and I was like, hey. I noticed it in a drawer, pulled it out and it's great. And I used it on my hands recently because I get eczema in the winter quite a bit. So my cracked hands need some love. So few drops of jojoba really helps that. And also we have an 18-month-old foster child with us right now. And after a bath time, I was like, "Hey, throw some of this on him." And my wife was kind of getting him dressed and everything and we lathered him up and it was super soft and he loved it and got his skin just glowing. It's so useful for so much stuff. So really helps skin, especially my skin issue. So that's how I've been using it.

Allissa Haines:

And the fact that it lasts so long is really something. You only need a few drops, and a little goes a long way. Anyhow, you can get 20% off jojoba when you purchase through our link massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba. Just want to say hello to Andrew who is popping in, I think, via Facebook. Yeah, thanks for getting up early and listening to us, Andrew. Appreciate it.

Michael Reynolds:

Thanks, Andrew.

Allissa Haines:

All right, Michael. You are taking the topic today, so I'm going to mute myself and let you do the work.

Michael Reynolds:

I sure am. All right. So today, I'm going to talk a little bit about a marketing branding design thingy called a brand identity kit. This is something that is, I think, useful to any business. We've talked before about branding, about logos, about design, about websites. This kind of fits in there as well. So there is a thing called a brand identity kit that we believe is a good idea for all massage therapists to have that goes with their logo and website and general marketing stuff. So what is a brand identity kit? We're going to talk about what it is, kind of what's in it, how it's used, why it's important and maybe how you get one, how you create one. So what is it? So basically it is a simple document that defines the visual standards for the visual elements of your brand.

So quickly, what is brand? Brand is basically how your clients or the general public perceives your business. So brand is much bigger than just your logo. Brand is a whole, just conceptual thing that is the vibe of your business, the culture, how people perceive you. So a lot of people say, "Well, my brand is my logo." No, a logo is a piece of your brand and literally a subset of that being a piece of the identity, the visual part of your brand. So we're not assuming that this is all encompassing for a brand, but a brand identity kit is a simple document defining the visual elements that includes your logo and some other stuff. So what's the other stuff? So this document typically has your logo as the main part of it. It displays your logo kind of in its standard format, often in the reversed white format that'll be on different surfaces. Maybe if there's different variations of the logo, that'll be defined in the document.

It also will contain your color palette. The color palette is the colors that are assigned and defined in your brand. So if you don't have a color palette, then you don't necessarily have a reference point for consistency. So if you build a website, it may have a certain set of colors. And then you have a brochure designed, it may have different colors. Then your social media posts may have different colors. And you have all this disparity in different colors floating around, and that leads to inconsistency in your color palette. So the color palette is defined in your brand identity kit. It can be a couple of colors. It can be seven colors. Usually, it's two to four is generally what you see. So the colors will be defined. The actual blocks will be there with the colors. And then underneath those, you'll have the code for the colors.

Usually, it's the hex code. There's different ways you can define what a color is. Online, you typically use what's called the hexadecimal code, which is the pound sign followed by six numbers or letters, and that defines what the color is. Sometimes it can be RGB, which is kind of three chunks. So there's different code you can use, but ultimately it's the code that defines what the color is. So if you plug it into tools or software or give it to printers, they know what color it literally is going to be. So that kind of defines the difference between this shade of blue and that shade of blue, for example. So there's different shades in between. Also, it contains your fonts. Font consistency, I think, is super important. A lot of people overlook that. What fonts are used on your website, what fonts are used in your brochures, what fonts are used on your business cards, what fonts are used in other documents you create, what fonts are used for headers, sub-headers, body content, those are defined in your brand identity kit.

So it's going to have at least probably two, a header and a body font, but often a sub-header as well. It can be the same font across all of them. It can be different fonts. You can have one font for your header and how it's written, uppercase, mixed case. You could have sub-header is a different font and then body font to something different. And ideally, they should compliment each other. So can you just pick fonts you like willy-nilly? You certainly can, but someone with a visual eye like a designer will be able to say, "You know what? This font goes really well with your logo and your colors and the vibe of your business." It does take some discernment to choose the right fonts. So you can certainly stick to some nice core basic fonts and they're probably fine, but you can also consult a designer who may be good at picking some more unique fonts that match and compliment your overall visual brand.

Sometimes you can contain more stuff in a brand identity kit. You can have things like vibe, mood boards, sample photos, messaging, tone, things like that. So I've seen some kits where they have a bar of three or six photos across the bottom and it says, "Here's some sample stock photos that go with our brand." The photos represent kind of the vibe or types of photos you might choose in visual stuff. Again, messaging can be part of it as well like, hey, we speak in this tone. We use this type of voice when we write, when we speak. So that can be something you can include as well. Not always, but if you want that level of definition and control over your brand elements, that can be useful.

There are other names it can be called as well. You may have heard it called a style guide, a brand kit, visual standards. These are all different names you can use for this kind of same thing. So again, brand identity kit is what we're saying today, but style guide is very common or brand style guide or brand kit or brand visual standards or visual style standards, any kind of combination. That's kind of the same thing we're talking about.

So again, that's kind of what's in it, what it can be called. So how is it used? What would you use this for? Often it's used for a website. So if you're building a new website, this is something you can give to your website creator to ensure that it matches your visual brand. In the absence of this, your website creator would just take your logo and slap it on there and probably just choose whatever's in the theme or pick their own fonts and colors and kind of run with it. That can be fine, but if you have clear definitions on what color palettes you want to use or what colors you want to use within the color palette, what fonts you're using, you're going to have that consistency, which means that your business card, if you're following the same standards, is going to look like it goes with your website. And your printed material is going to look like it goes with those things. And the logo apparel. You might get T-shirts, polos, other stuff. That's going to also look like it goes with your website and your business cards and everything else.

So that is really useful because brand consistency tends to fuel trust. That tends to build trust in those that interact with our business. One of the markers of trust in a business is consistency. So if you think of big brands... Think of any big brand. Starbucks or whatever or Nike or Apple or whatever. So if you really pay attention to all the different elements of communication you see from those businesses, you're going to notice consistency is a theme. The color's always the same palette. Style, always the same style. Fonts, always the same fonts. Logo usage is always carefully placed in a certain way. And there's a reason for that. Because that consistency, it's a marker of perceived reliability, it's a perceived marker of trust and it helps us feel more trust with that brand, kind of very organized or very professional.

So that's what we want to shoot for as well. So that brand identity kit is going to help you define how to represent those visual elements and therefore create that consistency between different elements in website, business card, stuff like that. So how do you create this? First of all, there's an example. If you want an example, there's a lot of ways you could get examples, but one example is ours. We have one that we've designed. If you go to massagebusinessblueprint.com/logo, the main reason for that little shortcut is so people can grab our logo if they need to. So if we're doing partnerships or things with other businesses or partners, they can grab our logo and easily get all the different high resolution files, all the proper type of files they can use in their material. Makes it really easy to grab that.

Within that folder, you're going to see it's a Google Drive folder it forwards to. You're going to see something called Massage Business Blueprint brand identity kit. It's a Google Slides file. You obviously can't edit it because it's ours, but you can download it as a PDF. So if you go to the file menu and while you're looking at it, you can grab a PDF of it. Or you can copy it to your own Google Drive, and then you can use that yourself as well. So that kind of leads us to how do you make one of these? Well, a great way to do this is ask your logo designer. Anyone who designs your logo should be able to put this together for you. It should be, I think, part of the package, but if they didn't do it, you can ask for it. And they may charge you a little bit for it, but it's worth getting. So a logo designer should be able to put this together for you. If you don't have access to the source that created your logo originally, other designers can create one for you.

We know our friend Rianne, for example, we've talked in the show before. She has a kind of service where she does this for people. She'll put a brand identity kit together for you based on your logo. So check out Rianne at boldlucidity.com if you want to get some help with that. Or you can use our template. Again, feel free to look at that file, open it up. The file menu and copy or file, I think, and make a copy will let you copy that to your own Google Drive. And then you can edit it. So you can replace your name, your colors, your logo, your fonts, just kind of fill in and replace our stuff with your stuff and you'll have your own brand identity kit that you can create pretty quickly and then use that going forward. So you're welcome to use that as a reference point and to make your own.

So that is what a brand identity kit is. That's why it's useful. It's a pretty simple document, but it goes a long way toward giving you consistency and just that professional visual look between all the different ways you use your logo, colors and fonts. So I hope that is helpful. And Allissa, I'd love to hear any feedback you have as well, anything you would add.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, I apologize if you covered this. I did get distracted because apparently my partner has brought my dog out into the backyard and is throwing things at him that is making him bark. Sorry. It's a rousing game of fetch, and I apologize if you hear my dog. If people don't have a logo designer and they want to kind of DIY this, how would you suggest they do it?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, I would just suggest using our template, honestly. You can use Canva also. Canva has some templates. I did look through Canva. My hatred of Canva has gotten softer. I'm warming up to Canva more these days. Still not my favorite, but most people love Canva, so don't listen to me. Go use Canva. It's great. And they do have some templates, but the ones I found were just so complicated. I couldn't find a simple one. They were always super complex.

Allissa Haines:

So I'll say that brand identity kit stuff as a whole, Canva might not be great for, but Canva has some nice color palettes. So if you're struggling to come up with a clear color palette, they have pre-made color palettes like this goes well with this and this goes well with this. And they have hundreds of them. I actually chose one for a business I was helping set up, and it just was so easy because all of a sudden, you have five color codes of things that go really well together. So there's that in there. But yeah, I think Canva could be a really good option for people who are lower level DIYing this. So we have a question from Andrew. Would this be placed on your website similarly... Similar. I said that wrong. To a media kit or press kit?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, I think so. We do that. It's not really on our website. It could be. So if you feel like you're doing... Or I shouldn't say feel. If you are doing lots of partnerships and you have more than one occasion to send someone your logo and visual standards, if you're doing lots of printing stuff or get logo apparel done or you're partnering with other entities, yeah, stick it on your about page or somewhere on your website where it's like, hey, here's our brand stuff and they can download it as maybe a zip file or a Google Drive like we have. We just kind of have a shortcut, massagebusinessblueprint.com/logo. We give that to people. They can grab everything they need. So I'd say yes to answer your question.

Allissa Haines:

Sweet. And Andrew also says that Canva is amazing and easy to use.

Michael Reynolds:

Everyone loves Canva.

Allissa Haines:

I agree. Well, it's not always easy to use, but it's gotten there. I got in very early on when Canva first started. I was such an early user that the original founder, her name was Poppy, had 15 minute teaching and helping sessions with people. She helped me design the logo for the wellness center I had way back.

Michael Reynolds:

Nice.

Allissa Haines:

But it's really come a long way. They actually have a desktop app now, which is really nice. And I don't know if they have it for PC. They definitely have it for Mac, which is kind of... It's a little easier, a little faster to use. And I really like it. So that's all I have to say about that. But this is a really good idea, and I think if you're someone who's struggling a little bit to kind of get clear on your business, if you feel like your online presence or even your business cards is a little too eclectic and not really cohesive, this exercise itself is just really nice in helping you create a more cohesive feel. So yay. And also, if you're someone who is into vision boards and cutting and pasting things to create, if you're kind of arts and craftsy in that way, this could be a super fun exercise for you.

Michael Reynolds:

Indeed.

Allissa Haines:

That's everything. That's everything I have to say about it. You feel good about it, Michael?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Well, you added on color palette gave me a quick tip idea, so stay tuned.

Allissa Haines:

Nice, because I'll get to my quick tip rant later. Okay, so let's talk. Let's get to our last sponsor of the day. Jane. We love Jane. Jane is a complete practice management software designed to help practitioners grow and manage their practices. They do this with helpful features like online booking, scheduling, billing, charting. Whether you are solo or you're in a large multidisciplinary practice or anything in between, we all know no-shows and late cancellations are a problem every practitioner faces. Jane has several tools to help you prevent and manage those no-shows, including the ability to save a credit card on file, send out unlimited text and email reminders. You can learn more about Jane's helpful features at jane.app. That's jane.app. Listeners should also also mention the podcast at the time of sign up for a one month grace period applied to their new Jane account. That's jane.app.

Michael Reynolds:

Thanks, Jane.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. Thanks, Jane. We have a couple of premium members who use Jane who have just been raving and have confirmed what we have heard in other places as well, that the customer service is phenomenal. And I can tell you that just our interactions with them, Jane's got their crap together. I really just like how they operate as a business, and I don't really say that about many people. I hate everybody. So no, I had a quick tip that I was all excited about and I think I thought of it while I was driving and I had my car slash phone integration email or text it to myself and now I can't find it. So I apologize for losing my quick tip, which for some reason earlier in the week I was like, "This is going to be the best." But I forgot it. So Michael, what do you got?

Michael Reynolds:

Well, it's okay because you inadvertently created one for me. So this goes directly with our topic today. So you mentioned color palettes. So let's say you have a logo but no color palette defined. There is a free tool online that will create a color palette for you. It is called Coolors, coolors.co. Again, that's coolors.co. Coolers. And if you upload your logo or upload even just a block like a single color... Usually just take your logo and that'll be the best way to do it. It will create a bunch of different sample color palettes for you that are complimentary, and you can choose a color palette and make that your color palette. So if you're having trouble defining colors, Coolors is a great site for creating that for you and using that in your brand identity kit.

Allissa Haines:

Ooh, I just opened it, and it looks really fancy.

Michael Reynolds:

It's pretty easy to use. Yeah, just upload your logo and run with it.

Allissa Haines:

Stop giving me things to play with. I have real work to do. All right. Everybody, thank you so much for listening, for making it through. I want to remind you that if you have a question for us, you can email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. If you email us, make sure you check your junk mail for replies. And I'm talking to you specifically, Lonnie, because you sent me a really good question yesterday and I asked for some follow up and I haven't heard back from you yet. Check your junk mail file, Lonnie. And yeah, we love your questions. We love to answer them. As I was saying, I just got an email from a listener yesterday, and it is going to be the topic of next week's podcast. It's going to be really, really good. We love your questions. We love your feedback. We love your reviews on Apple Podcast. It helps other listeners find us. We so appreciate that. That is all I have to say today. Visit us at massagebusinessblueprint.com for all the other info.

Michael Reynolds:

Thanks, everyone. Have a great day. We'll see you next time.