desislava dobreva

){EET THE BRANDING Q!JEEN• Desislava DobrevaComing from a countLy in Eastern Europe called Bulgaria, I know a thing_or two abouLbeing judged b _y the cover

*inspiring story coming - turn the page if you think that's lame*

As my TEDx talk can tell you, I've spent the majority of my life being abused, bullied, stalked and even threatened. I lost my voice for the longest time, and at one point, I almost took my own life.

Regaining my confidence was the most difficult task I've ever given myself, but it saved my life - and many other lives.

It saved me from abuse, toxic relationships and even poverty. Being confident as fuck is the only way to truly live and the #1 reason behind my success in life and business. Today, I'm recognized as The Branding Queen by Entrepreneur Magazine, TEDx, The Good Men Project, Thrive Global and many other reputable institutions. I'm fully location-independent and I never have to worry about menu prices or plane fares. The hundreds of positive testimonials by clients, the fact that I've never been asked for a refund or a chargeback shows that integrity is my core value and I plan on keeping it this way.

Back when I was starved for food, I'd eat oatmeal three times a day, because it was all I could afford. When I went to Denmark to pursue my master degree in branding I had no place to live, no money to pay for my tickets back and no job opportunities. People would constantly look down on me because I come from Eastern Europe and have a heavy accent.

Today, a lot of those same people are unemployed or slaving away at a cubicle working for someone else. Karma is a bigger bitch than I am, and that's saying something.

Back then, I had no choice but to keep pushing. I finally found a job as a dishwasher, which saved my master degree and kept me in Denmark for a while. When I started my business as a freelancer on UpWork, I was charging $8 per hour and thinking this is was good as it would get. Why would anybody ever pay me more?

Have you ever felt like you just don't deserve more?

Still, I started getting dozens of clients every month, so I quickly left my job in the startup I was working for and I took my power back. I was tired of giving away 20% of my profits to a platform, when I was sure I could get clients easily by myself.

2 months later, I had my first $3000 day doing what I truly loved - helping clients grow brands that are Powerful, Profitable and Popular. I had sold my very first program to three people. Then, I managed to scale my business and bring in a team that I love.

How did I go from $8 per hour to THIS?

I figured out how important branding was for my own business, not just my clients' businesses. I took my business away from the platform I was on and moved it to my own social media channels. I crafted a powerful brand strategy followed by a digital marketing plan for selling out my programs ... and two months later, I started reaping the rewards.

8 months later, I made $100 000 by moving away from 18-hour days and embracing 3-5 hours of work daily.

This validated my business and showed me I can easily get to a million in revenue by strengthening my positioning and growing my brand as much as I can, as fast as possible.

Integrity, CONFIDENCE and focused action have helped me build a brand I love that will leave a powerful legacy in the world. Best of all? I did it with my own highly unconventional methods - now it's your turn. Let's make sure your business never suffers from brand amnesia and is easily recognized - and remembered.

Yours,

- # !HE BRANDING Q!JEENTM

The concept of brand authority, to this day, is severely unexplored - if you try to use Google to find out how to determine your brand authority, you simply won't be able to.

No free or paid resources provide you with the right way to do it. How crazy is that?!

Worst of all… the few resources that exist only look at it from either a corporate perspective - or they talk about SEO and backlinks.

This is why what you're about to go through is a revolutionary resource - soon enough, people will start copying it, but you will be the one who got here first.

This will enable you to think of your brand in a completely new perspective, that will help you build trust faster than ever.

This little ebook is going to be your roadmap to examining your brand authority consistently and finding out how your business is positioned.

The best way to do this is to execute a brand audit - something very few business owners do, which negatively impacts their influence and revenue.

The 11 questions featured in this roadmap are questions you should be asking yourself and questions you should be asking your audience. Hint: the best way to execute a brand audit using some of these questions is not to create a simple social media post.

For a small business, the best way is to create a survey (you can use multiple tools, such as SurveyMonkey) and share it via social media. The answers will show you how strong your positioning is - meaning, how well people know what you do and how much they trust you - which has a direct correlation with whether they'd buy from you.

Let's start with the basics - what is brand authority? To put it simply, it's trust. Do people trust you enough to buy from you? How much would they pay? Would they buy anything you sell?

A high brand authority means that yes, they'd most likely buy anything you're selling because they see you as an expert in what you do.

A low brand authority means you're not there yet, and you may make a sale here and there, even a high-ticket one, but you don't have a sustainable business. Oftentimes people make a lot of money short-term because of other factors, but their lack of brand authority makes that success impossible to replicate in the long-term.

Brand Audit: Your 11-Question Roadmap to BreakingYour Income Ceiling and Gaining Influence

Brand Audit: Your 11-Question Roadmap to Breaking

Your Income Ceiling and Gaining Influence

The next pages feature questions with multiple answers to choose from. Underneath them is an analysis of what the answer you chose means in terms of brand authority.

IMPORTANT: The answers to these questions won't give you the entire picture. Each one is a piece of the puzzle and will help you understand some of the setbacks your business may have faced, why you haven't been able to grow or scale faster, and why you haven't broken your income ceiling. Don't look at the questions in a "okay, I chose this answer, so my brand authority is terribly low or super high" kind of way.

Think of each one as an indicator of what you can improve, even if you're doing it well.

The entire goal of this ebook is to bring you more awareness - and we all know that's the first step to… well, everything awesome.

Let's do this!

P.S. Look out for the questions with a crown image next to them. They are the ones you should include in your brand audit survey!



Let's get straight into it!

1. Where do most of your clients come from?

• Client referrals/word of mouth• Fb ads• Organic content marketing• Offline events

Reasoning: A lot of entrepreneurs think think that getting most of their clients via word of mouth is a good thing. In reality, it's not - because while it means you have happy customers, it also means you are not using the rest of your resources in a way that is bringing you more clients.

The answer Client referrals means your brand authority is high among your past and current clients, but it also means it's low outside of that small circle. You need to be doing more on social media - start with defining your brand personality, writing your origin story and creating a content plan.

The answer Facebook ads means you've made your ads work for you - good job! The only concern would be that you may not be doing enough with organic marketing. Make sure your organic efforts are supplementing your paid advertising at all times.

The answer Organic content marketing means that you're possibly miles ahead of others in your niche, because your brand authority is high and your brand positioning is strong (but it also depends on what you're selling - e.g. selling a $20 product on social media is not the same as selling a $500 product with your content).

The answer Offline events means you convert better when people can see your face, your gestures, your expressions - but getting clients from offline events is not scalable unless it's where most of your focus is in your business. Your brand authority is most likely dangerously low on social media, and to get the best of both worlds, you should be doing live videos as often as you can - and, of course, selling.

https://desdobreva.com/courses/the-little-branding-playbook/




2. How many radio shows/TV interviews/podcast interviews/socialmedia interviews have you been featured on?

• 0• 1-10• 10-50• 50-100• More

Reasoning: Being interviewed is one of the fastest ways to build brand authority and strengthen your positioning, especially if you're interviewed by someone well-respected in their industry. Try to score interviews with people whose services complement yours - you never know where a future collaboration might come from!

Anything below 10 means you're not making any effort to tap into other people's audiences, which is the best and fastest brand authority hack. Your brand authority is most likely low because few people outside of your own circle know about you. Get on more interviews!

10-50 means you're making a real effort to become better known, which is the key togrowing your brand authority and getting more paying customers. Your next task is to tryto get featured in places with millions of viewers/listeners/readers.

50-100 or more means you've done a fantastic job at getting more visible, and if you'vebeen sharing the right message with the right people, your authority is high. Keep it up, butmake sure you've defined your ideal client properly and are speaking to them in the rightway, or all those appearances won't bring you clients.



3. Do you believe the majority of your audience understands whatyou do and knows your story?

• YES• NO

Reasoning: Your origin story is your place of true credibility. If you haven't defined it and shared it, and your audience doesn't know it, that means you haven't build an emotional connection with them. You may have shared random pieces of it, but writing down the complete story and then sharing parts of it means you'll be doing it in a more consistent manner and from the right angle. Always make sure the messaging of your story is relevant to your ideal clients. E.g. if you want to serve successful business owners who want to scale, your origin story shouldn't just be about how you went from nothing to being a successful business owner. This isn't where they are right now, so how can they connect to it?

If you answered Yes, and you were honest about it, you've accomplished something few others do - congratulations! If you were telling the truth, and you know how to sell, then you should have a highly profitable business right now. If that is not the case - at least now you know what you're doing right. The question is… what aren't you?

If you answered No, then you have some serious work to do. You need to define and write down your origin story if you haven't, and you need to begin sharing aspects of it consistently with your audience. You also need to, at least a few times a week, remind people of what you do and use your social media bios to make it very clear - a 1-2 sentence bio is not the place to be creative - it's the place to be straightforward.



4. Are you often tagged in recommendations for people to follow/trust on social media?

• YES• NO

Reasoning: Few things build trust and authority faster than other people's public recommendations. You goal should always be for others to publicly acknowledge that you're an expert.

If you answered Yes, congratulations, people understand you're an expert and know exactly what you do! It's a fantastic way to grow your authority and find clients. Make sure you don't just leave it there - thank them and encourage them to keep recommending you.

If you answered No, what you can do to change this is to plant the idea in your audience's minds, that they should be recommending you on social media. You can start by creating posts where you mention people you want to recommend - they will want to reciprocate and do the same for you, plus, the rest of your audience will remember that next time someone is searching for an expert in your niche. Also, when you are tagged somewhere, you should make yourself known and write something mind-blowing. Nobody else is doing this, so I personally always get clients this way.

Example: Somebody shares a post where they are looking for a branding expert. I am tagged together with a few others from my niche. I create a long-form answer (or re-use and edit an answer I have already saved in Evernote for those types of situations, wink), related to, for instance, what they should really look for in a branding expert. It results in everyone sending me friend requests and connecting with me. But, most importantly, it results in the 1 thing that will ensure people keep recommending you publicly: they feel cool doing it. Don't ever underestimate the "cool factor" - it has everything to do with status.





5. How big is your following on social media?

• 100-1000 people• 1000-10 000• 10 000-100 000• 100 000 - 1 million• More

Reasoning: Contrary to popular belief, the quantity of social media followers does matter - where do you think clients come from? Each new follower is another opportunity to land a new client. You should absolutely be focused on growing your following at all times - but only with relevant people. Potential clients, potential collaborators and business partners, for instance.

If you answered 100-1000, your primary focus, apart from selling to your existing audience, should be to expand it. Some ways to do this are cross-promotion, being interviewed by others as often as possible (or interviewing them), being active daily on social media (strategically, not in a wasting-your-time kind of way), creating shareable content (and telling people to share it).

1000 - 10 000 means you've done a very good job at growing, but now is the time to audit your audience and establish what % of it are your ideal clients or possible collaborators and business partners, and what % are people who are irrelevant to you and your business. Remember, people who don't engage with your audience means they are taking up space for people who would.

10 000 - 100 000 means your authority is quite high (if they're relevant and unless you bought them - oops!) and if you're interested in this at all, you can easily score influencer deals. Free stays at 5-star hotels, free business services and resources from companies who want you to speak aboutthem publicly, etc. - not only is there nothing wrong with this, it will help you grow your brandauthority further and attract more clients. Why? Because like it or not, this is a sign of success.

100 000 - 1 million means that, first of all, you are fantastic at growing your audience, something few others are good at, especially when it comes to entrepreneurship, and not just influencer marketing. Now is the time to figure out exactly how you grew to this point, and find out what are some of the tactics you have not used for audience growth yet. Think about it: they will probably help you grow even faster, if that's what you want.

Have more than 1 million? That's incredible, if you're not yet engaged in some sort of an initiative you support - animal rights, gender equality, sex trafficking - now's the time! Pick a cause you support, and begin speaking up about it publicly if you haven't yet. Not only will it help many people around the world, but it will grow your brand authority, because your audience will connect with you emotionally and respect you more for using your platform for more than just business.



6. What is the highest-priced product you've sold in your currentbusiness? (in a survey, you can ask: "What's the most expensive product you've ever bought from me?")

• $10-$100• $100-$500• $500-$1000• Higher

Reasoning: When it comes to pricing, it helps you find out how much your audience trusts you. For instance, if the highest-priced product you've ever sold is the equivalent of a dinner in a cheap restaurant, and you've tried to sell much more expensive products, then something's wrong - they don't trust you. This means your brand authority is low and it's time to work on it!

If you answered $10-$100, then you're either just getting started - no harm in that! - or your audience barely has any trust in you. The only exception here is that you may just have never tried to sell anything more expensive. In which case, please do, because if you don't, you'll never know how much they trust you. Awareness is key!

If you answered $100-$500, that's very good! Now is the time to evaluate how you sold these products/services - was it only with your social media content? Did you have to lead them to a sales call? The way I teach selling with the power of branding, you should be able to sell anything up to at least $500 only with your content, no sales calls necessary. If this is not the case, start working on your content themes and create a content calendar where you plan your social media posts at least a week in advance.

If you answered $500-$1000, this means your audience most likely sees you as an expert in what you do and trusts you - which is a very good sign for your brand authority. What you can do now, is to figure out how many people have bought something from you with this price tag - and make sure it keeps happening. The way to do this is to do proper lead generation - live videos with links in the video description are always a good idea - and to create proper sales systems, starting with a value ladder and a sales funnel.

If you answered Higher, evaluate how happy those customers were, get video testimonials from as many of them as you can and blast them on your website and social media platforms. This is the 1 thing that will ensure that product or service keeps selling.



7. How often do you publish content on your primary platform(e.g. Facebook, blog)?

• Daily• A few times a week• Once a week or less

Reasoning: Whether we love creating content or not, it's the one thing that potential clients will notice when deciding whether to work with you - not to mention, it's how they notice you in the first place! Consistent, daily content creation is key for any business with an online presence - whether you're creating it yourself or outsourcing it.

If you answered Daily, congratulations - now, what you need to do is figure out if you're creating the right content. Focus on really understanding your ideal client and what the type of messaging that will attract them is. Hint: are they running away from a negative situation or running towards a more positive one? Start there.

If you answered a few times a week, you need a system - pick a day of the week (or month, if you're feeling super organized) when you can dedicate hours of your time to content creation and scheduling. Find a platform like Buffer to schedule from. Next, create a content calendar for your business - add at least one social media platform to it and create your posts a week (or month, if you're like me!) in advance.

If you answered Once a week or less, you have some work to do! Being visible so rarely means hardly anyone is noticing you or your business online, and no eyeballs on your content means you've lost your top of mind awareness. Studies on the mere-exposure effect demonstrate that the more people see you, the more they would prefer your brand over another one. Start with a content plan and if you dread content creation so much, outsource it!

https://www.psychreg.org/mere-exposure-effect/



8. How often do you get invited to speak at events/be featured in large publications without pitching yourself?

• Often - at least a few times a month• A few times a year• Never

Reasoning: Nothing builds brand authority like speaking on stages around the world and being featured as an expert in publications with millions of readers - like Forbes, Entrepreneur or Inc. Pitching yourself is something you should absolutely be doing - but if you get invited instead, it's a true testament to the brand authority you've built in your industry.

If you answered Often, you've done very well with building authority. What you can do now is use that in your social media presence - tell your audience how often you get invited and what an honor it is to not have to pitch yourself because you've built a strong brand.

If you answered A few times a year, that's a very good start! Try making it clear to your audience that you love speaking (if, indeed, you do), focus on creating live videos and, of course, connect to editors and contributors to the publications you want to be featured in. Most of the people featured are there because of connections!

If you answered Never, not to worry - this will change as your brand authority grows! Typically, it's hard to get invited without being there beforehand. Meaning, start speaking at local events and use photos and videos of this to promote your speaking career - this will bring you more opportunities.



9. Does your audience think they can always message/call you to pickyour brain, or do they understand boundaries?

• They ask to pick my brain regularly• They understand I can't help unless they're a paying client

Reasoning: Even if your brand personality is "kind and humble", this doesn't mean you should be positioned as a pushover. It's crucial that you help your audience understand that you won't work for free - nobody wants to pay someone who would help them for free anyway.

If you answered They ask to pick my brain regularly, then you probably haven't created enough content that aims to eliminate that way of thinking on their behalf. Over the next 2 months, at least once a week, remind your audience publicly of why they should never allow anyone to pick their brain for free - that way, they'll assume you don't either.

If you answered They understand I can't help unless they're a paying client, good job! Your probably don't get that many requests like this, which is a good thing. People who do this rarely become paying clients later on.

10. Do you have a unified place where you're growing your brandcommunity? (e.g. forum, Facebook group)

Reasoning: One of the pillars or building authority is having a loyal community by your side, composed of people who buy anything you sell. They will become your best testimonials, not to mention will promote your business for free whenever they get the chance, because they're so excited to be working with you.

If you answered Yes, that's great! Now, start thinking about whether you're using the right platform (e.g. if your target audience isn't on Facebook, is a Facebook Group the best way to do this? What if they're on LinkedIn or Instagram?). You should also think about the best ways to sell on the platform, how often you can do it and what content you should be creating for it.

If you answered No, it's about time you created that unified place! You can't grow a community out of a social media account unless you're a massive influencer, in which case, people pay for meet and greets! Remember, a community is not just people you talk to and connect with, it's people who talk to and connect to each other as well. You become the catalyst that enables them to build powerful relationships.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SMBAcademy/

11. Regardless if they were done on a budget or not, are your visualsaligned with your brand? Do they look professional or amateurish?

• They look professional• They look amateurish



Reasoning: Even though you can have a wildly successful business without a great visual identity, it's a tool you can use to strengthen your positioning and build trust. Shouldn't you be using all the tools you can to attract your ideal clients and close sales? The main problem is, you often don't know if your visuals look amateurish or professional. Your best bet - ask your current and past clients (plus, add it as a question in your brand audit survey).

If you answered They look professional, that means your visuals are aligned with your brand and have successfully become part of your narrative. If so, that's fantastic! Make sure you have a set of fonts, colors, emojis and symbols that you use consistently throughout every visual aspect of your business - from cover photos to marketing materials and business cards.

If you answered They look amateurish, the good news is - they don't have to! Contrary to popular belief, it's not that hard to create good-looking visuals yourself if you're on a budget (even though most Canva-created marketing materials make me want to bleed out from my fingernails). In case you don't want to spend your time looking at tutorials and trying to nail them yourself, invest in a proper visual identity and find yourself a brand stylist. Start by asking for recommendations on social media! Hell, my branding agency does this for a living.

https://desdobreva.com/done-for-you-service/

When someone lands on your website, and you have a blog with recent blog posts (or with the date removed if you haven't posted in a while), they subconsciously decide 2 things - firstly, you are creating free content, so you must really care about educating others, and secondly, you really know what you're doing.

For example, corporations always check your blog section to see if you've been active lately and what topics you're discussing. It's a fantastic way to grow your brand authority.

One of the best things I've done for my career is my TEDx talk - not to mention that speaking in front of 700 hundred people was a killer experience! TED is a high-authority brand, so connecting your business to it makes sense - everybody can recognize it! If your talk is good, it will get published on the official TEDx channel on YouTube.

Hardly anyone is doing this - which is great news for you! Every single time you upload a photo or video to this album, your audience will be faced with yet another happy client who's raving about their experience with you. If that doesn't make them hit the "BUY" button, nothing will!



Bonus: 3 extra things you can do today to elevate your brand authority

• Start a blog

• Do a TEDx talk

• Start a photo/video album on social media where you onlyshare testimonials



How do you feel now? Better prepared to tackle the online world and take control of your brand? I should hope so!

If you're unsure about how some of it works or want to put all of this - and more - into practice faster, there's no better way to do it than joining the Badass Brand Squad. BBS is the inner circle for ambitious leaders who've dedicated their lives and careers to helping others and becoming wealthy in the process. It's a business community focused on helping you grow and scale with the power of branding - something you won't find anywhere else in this format.

It's the engine behind many successful launches, award ceremonies, recurring revenue streams, TEDx appearances and so much more. We're highly exclusive and we don't accept just anyone - but how would you feel if you didn't even try?

Apply to join us (or get on the waitlist if we're closed for new members) and let's make sure your brand authority is an engine for business growth instead of something slowing you down every day!

Yours,

The Branding Queen™

https://badassbrandsquad.com

https://badassbrandsquad.com

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